


Spiderses

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 03:38:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18044720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Prompted by Ydris, Daine goes looking for spiders and bumps into someone unexpected. Daine belongs to HellishSam.





	Spiderses

Daine really didn't want to be here. Oh sure, he'd been through a lot since coming to Jorvik- dying, almost dying again in Pandoria, meeting the most wonderful man he'd ever met and some wonderful friends, coming face to face with talking horses, men who turned themselves into monsters, even turning into a monster of sorts himself... but as things went, this was pretty bad.

It had all started when a few of the Keepers of Light had been called to Hayden's camp in the Mirror Marshes the day before. It would take more than one person to count one hundred baby spiders, after all. And it had, though it had still taken about half an hour to check on all of the little clutches of eggs. Daine and Louisa had both been brushing invisible web off them for hours afterwards. And now, Daine was doing the same thing as he rode Cloud around the Eastern Slopes near Dews Farm in Epona.

"Spiders," Daine muttered, Cloud flicking his ears at the sound of his rider's voice. "Why did it have to be spiders?"

"Would you prefer butterflies?" Cloud asked. Daine frowned.

"No," said Daine. Cloud snorted, tossing his head.

"I like butterflies," said Cloud.

"I know you do," said Daine. "Just keep an ear out for cat noises." Why the fuck did they have to make cat noises? Was it so that humans would find them cute? That didn't seem like a good thing for small creatures. Unless it was to lure in unsuspecting humans to get an easy meal. Daine shivered at the idea.

Dews Farm seemed like a pretty good place to look, so Daine rode Cloud into the yard and dismounted him outside of one of the sheds. He saw a chestnut Arabian gelding standing there, looking oddly boney. Maybe it was sick or something. Daine glanced at it as he passed, noting the spiderweb-patterned black tack that it wore.

As Daine walked into the shed, he heard a young woman's voice, softly-accented with a Texan accent. It was familiar, and he felt the sudden urge to run away. But he balled his hands into fists and began to look for the source of the little 'kitty' noises.

"Hey little one, where are you?" the voice cooed. Daine scowled. Of course Lisa would find the damn things cute. But then, Daine heard the little kitten noise close to him and jumped back with a scream as a 'little' brown spider ran over his booted foot. Immediately, Lisa's head appeared hanging from the loft, the young woman looking down at him with delight shining in her brown eyes. "You found it!"

"Fuck this," said Daine, making his way out of the shed. Behind him, he heard Lisa scampering down from the loft and cooing at the spider as she picked it up.

"Daine, wait!" Lisa cried, running out after him. Daine looked back and bit back a scream at the sight of the spider sitting atop Lisa's red hair. "Are you looking for the spiders too?"

"Yeah, Ydris convinced me to," said Daine. "How'd you find out about it?"

"Louisa told me," said Lisa. "She didn't want to go looking, though, so I offered to go in her place." Lisa swung herself up into the chestnut gelding's saddle, the spider crawling down her back and into the snug-looking saddlebag. Daine shivered, seeing more legs poking out and wondering just how many spiders Lisa had collected already.

"See, why couldn't Ydris do that?" Daine asked, glaring down at his necklace. Thinking for a moment, he dug in his pocket and pulled his phone out, calling his fiance.

"Yes, my phoenix?" Ydris asked, sounding as though he knew he'd been talked about. Daine hoped that Ydris could hear the frown in his voice.

"Why did you make me go look for spiders?" Daine asked. "Lisa went in Louisa's place."

"Ah, but I do not know the layout of the land, mon phenix," said Ydris. "Not like you." Daine frowned, glaring in the direction of the highland.

"Fine," said Daine. "If I get killed by spiders, that's on you." He ended the call before Ydris could say anything else, turning to look at Lisa and doing a double-take when he saw the spider sitting on her head.

"No luck?" Lisa asked.

"No," said Daine. "I hate spiders but Ydris wants me to help look for them because he loves them."

"Well, they're adorable! I don't blame him," said Lisa. Daine turned his glare on her now.

"God, you're just as bad as him," said Daine. "Only you didn't convince your fiancee to go looking for them for you."

"It helps that I know Jorvik like the back of my hand," said Lisa. "Or the back of Louisa's hand, at this point."

"Gross," said Daine.

"I hear noises coming from down the road sometimes, don't act so innocent," said Lisa. Daine sighed, shaking his head as he mounted Cloud and rode off.

"Where have you looked so far?" Daine asked grudgingly as Lisa rode up beside him. Louisa was one of his best friends, after all, he kind of owed it to her to get along with her fiancee.

"I've looked all over the Eastern Slopes," said Lisa. "I was thinking of heading to Forgotten next? Since it's closest."

"I've looked around the Silverglade Village area," said Daine. "And South Hoof."

"Damn, you're dedicated," said Lisa.

"Mostly because Ydris asked me very nicely," said Daine. "And he helped a little bit." Ydris had accompanied Daine on his search of South Hoof, and currently had Xin out looking for spiders in the Silverglade Acres area.

"Aww, so you do have a heart," Lisa teased. Daine shrugged, his gaze sliding up to the campsite where the truth had very nearly come out in its entirety. Lisa noticed, sobering up. "I get why you punched me now."

"Good," said Daine. "What you said, it... it was really unfeeling."

"I know," said Lisa. "I was a bitch. Louisa told me in... the nicest way possible. And now I know that you have lost someone and... I'm sorry. For your loss and for not even thinking about other people. I mean, hell, Viktor's mother died and now I can't even look at him because I lost my mother too. Or at least, I couldn't look at him for a long time. No wonder Louisa had to trick us into meeting up for coffee."

"Sure she didn't trick us into meeting up by looking for fucking spiders?" Daine asked. Lisa laughed.

"Yeah, I'm sure she created a tornado to scatter a hundred spiders across the map and then made us search for them," said Lisa. "This is just a coincidence."

"I guess she didn't know I'd go searching for them," said Daine. "So she's off the hook. This time."

"I could always punish her anyway, though," said Lisa. Daine's eye twitched.

"You know, I don't need to join up with you, I can find the little bastards on my own," said Daine, moving away. Lisa laughed.

"Alright, fine, sorry, I'll stop," said Lisa. But the smile on her lips faded. "But seriously, I'm sorry for assuming that you didn't know what it was like to lose someone. Because you do know what it's like. A lot of people do. I wasn't thinking, I was just upset because we were so close to getting to Anne and then another roadblock came up and I just... snapped."

"Clearly," said Daine. But enough time had passed now, and he'd heard Louisa talking about her fiancee often enough. Fretting over her, really. "I can see why, though. You rested for a couple of months and then it was just one thing after another. You didn't really deal with that properly." Ydris had said as much to him, too.

"Yeah, that's what Louisa said," said Lisa. "If only because she knew what that was like, it was fresh after that huge breakdown she had in Greendale. I felt so awful when I found her." Daine resisted the urge to tell her that she should have felt awful. But then, relief came in the form of more kitten noises on the beach that they'd ridden onto.

"I guess I can point to the spider and you can pick it up?" Daine asked.

"Wow, you really are afraid of them," said Lisa, dismounting the Arabian and walking over to the water's edge. She reached out, talking softly to the blue spider as she coaxed it off the rock and into her hands. Daine cringed away from it, hating the fact that his skin crawled at the sight.

"Well, gee, I'm sorry that a fucking huge spider terrifies me," said Daine.

"It's funny, Louisa said the same thing," said Lisa as she swung herself back into the saddle after putting the spider away.

"Where's Starshine?" Daine asked as they set off again.

"At home," said Lisa. "He's getting a break today, spending the day with Smokeeye. Because Louisa told me to take Spidersurprise here with me instead."

"Spider...?" Daine asked.

"Yeah," said Lisa, nodding. "She was cleaning out her stable one day and threw her rune wand at a spider. It turned into this guy here." She patted the horse's neck, and Daine's skin crawled as he jerked away from the horse. Cloud gave a little whinny and did a funny little half piaffe.

"Yeah, okay, that was pretty obvious in hindsight," said Daine. It explained why the horse looked so strange and had a strange, almost spidery gait.

"She figured that her spider horse would want to go looking for his spider brethren," said Lisa. "Even though he was technically a huntsman." Daine cringed, though he continued alongside Lisa.

"Why is she so nice?" Daine muttered. "It's impossible for someone to be that nice."

"I don't know but that's what I love about her," said Lisa, smiling. "But you should see how she gets with Jamie Olivetree. I've never seen her so angry, except that one time when you punched me in the face."

"I'm sorry, okay?" said Daine. "It was a really stupid fucking thing to say, but you were dealing with a lot. Or not dealing with it. But I'm sorry for punching you."

"Hey, I deserved it," said Lisa. "So I forgive you. Even though it did hurt. You're lucky I can heal myself."

"It turned out okay anyway," Daine muttered.

"Oh, so that's where you ran away to," said Lisa. Daine's cheeks heated, though he didn't tell Lisa what he'd really done with Ydris that day. When he'd gone there for kisses and comfort and come away having both 'lost' and gained something.

"I'd tease you in return but you overshare," said Daine.

"You're damn right I do," said Lisa, smirking. She turned Spidersurprise away from the beach, though, riding back up onto the road.

"That song you played the night before everything was nice," said Daine, wanting to get Lisa away from (quite literally) sore topics.

"Thank you," said Lisa. "It was inspired by my fiancee, actually."

"I'm not surprised," said Daine.

"She helped me when I was in a really bad place," said Lisa. "Literally. And just... thinking about how she's always there for her friends, how much she's helped me and all of you. It inspired me."

"She's helped all of us, somehow," said Daine.

"She's an angel," said Lisa. "And I still don't know why my song reached her and nobody else, but... maybe it was fate, as your fiance says."

"Stranger things have happened," said Daine. And, this being Jorvik, he believed that when he said it. "I mean, hell, that horse used to be a spider."

"I hope Hayden lets me keep one of them," said Lisa. "I'd love a pet spider."

"Think Louisa would be okay with that?" Daine asked.

"Louisa said as long as I keep it in a tank in my music room," said Lisa, looking quite smug.

"Don't be surprised if you get a visit from Ydris," said Daine. "It'll be you or Tyler, honestly. Just keep them the hell away from me."

"You sound like Louisa when you say that," said Lisa, smiling. She had a spider sitting on her head again. Daine looked away from her, running a hand over his hair. He swore there was a spider in it. His hood fell back, and he remembered his scar the instant Lisa gasped.

“Shit,” said Daine, pulling his hood back up.

“Louisa said it was bad but… damn,” said Lisa, shaking her head. Daine chose not to notice the way the spider moved around.

“Yeah,” said Daine. “I was really sick.”

“She carried you out, I remember now,” said Lisa.

“She was the only one allowed in to heal me,” said Daine. “Ydris was worried about the druids finding out and…”

“We may have gotten off to a rocky start,” said Lisa.

“Understatement,” said Daine.

“Let me finish,” said Lisa, holding up her finger. Daine internally screamed as a spider crawled out of Lisa’s sleeve and sat on her hand. “I’ll protect your secret. You’re safe with me, Daine. Even though you did punch me in the face.”

“I said I’m sorry,” said Daine, exasperated. But Lisa laughed.

“Hey, if I had a shilling for every time Alex has punched Anne in the face, I’d be rich even without the songs,” said Lisa. “It’s alright, Daine. I’m past that now.”

“Good,” said Daine, expelling a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. “Just keep those fucking spiders away from me.”

“I’ll try,” said Lisa, shrugging.

But Daine felt better as they continued. Now, everything looked like it was going to be okay. At least, on the friendships front.


End file.
